AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Something almost like fear tears through me. What if I’veforgotten everything? Surely painting is just like any other skill—use it or you lose it, or however that saying goes. Can a person lose their inherent talent? I’m sure it’s possible, even probable.
“Could I paint you?” The question’s out before I can think of all the reasons she’ll tell me no. Before, the only way she’d agree to it was if I promised no one would see those pieces but the two of us. I held to that promise, even at my most selfish. Truth be told, that impulse was selfish too. I didn’t want to share her with the world.
Eurydice stares at me, and there’s a moment of perfect understanding between us. We can never change the past that got us to this place, can never erase the scars she has because of my carelessness. But right here, right now, we can begin again. Maybe we can even do it right this time.
She smiles. “Yes.”
26
CHARON
I know my long day is about to get even longer when I’m summoned to Hades’s office again. I walk through the door to find him glaring at his computer, which only means one thing—he’s about to meet with the rest of the Thirteen. Since the new Zeus took over the position, Hades has been venturing into the upper city for these meetings. I will admit more than a little relief about the fact that he’s not doing it tonight. After the attack on the club, we need to lock down.
He won’t give that order. Not until he absolutely has to. He doesn’t normally care about public perception the same way the others seem to, but he’s certainly more aware of it since he married Persephone.
“I want you sitting in on this meeting. I’m sorry I’m not able to give you an update before I deal with the rest of them, but time is of the essence.”
“Of course.” I take position just off his right shoulder where I can hear what’s said and see the screen, but no one on the screen can see me.
He pulls up the software to initiate a video call, and then hesitates. “Eurydice has been safely escorted back to your town house. Minthe arranged for someone to relieve her when her shift ends. They’re not inside the house, but they are keeping watch.”
Relief twines with alarm. “You don’t normally take this kind of interest in nitty-gritty things like schedules.”
He gives me a slashing look. “Wearetalking about my sister-in-law. The reason I don’t take an overt interest in details like scheduling is because that’s your job, and I’m not interested in stepping on your toes. You’re my second-in-command for a reason, Charon. I’m informing you so you can focus on this meeting without worrying about Eurydice. She’s safe.”
This is about the information Ariadne gave. He’s expecting me to have an extremely negative response to it. I take a slow breath. “I appreciate that.” There’s nothing else to say. We don’t have that kind of relationship anyways. We’re friends as such things go, but until Hades met Persephone, he attempted to keep a thick icy wall between him and anyone else. Things might’ve thawed in the last year, but old habits are hard to break.
Hades scrubs his hands over his face and smooths back his hair. It’s the only sign of nerves he gives. When he pushes the button to initiate the call, his shoulders are straight and his face is a cold mask. One by one, squares pop up with various members of the Thirteen. There’s Zeus and Hera, sitting a very careful distance apart. There’s Poseidon, looking like he hasn’t slept in days. They aren’t who I’m interested in. My gaze skips over Hephaestus and Aphrodite, both newly appointed barely a month ago when the last two stepped down.
Finally Hermes arrives. She appears to be on a mobile phone, walking somewhere quick enough to give me motion sickness. Her dark-brown skin gleams with perspiration in the low light, and sometime since I saw her last, she’s put her hair in braids.
I’m not the only one who’s waiting for her to arrive. Zeus leans forward as if he can reach right through the screen and throttle her. “Hermes. You haven’t reported for the last month’s worth of meetings. Where are you?”
“Here and there, hither and yon. You know, the usual.” She grins, but it doesn’t quite have her usual carefree vibe. “This meeting wasn’t called to talk about me, was it? Why are you so obsessed with me?” She laughs.
“Maybe because you’re a fucking traitor.” Artemis doesn’t yell. She doesn’t have to. Her words cut through the tension like a knife. “For all we know, you’re working for the enemy.”
“How very dramatic.” She opens her mouth, no doubt to continue needling Artemis, but Zeus cuts in before she can continue.
“This meeting wasn’t called by you—either of you. Hades, you have something to say?”
I feel a twinge of sympathy for Hades. It can’t be comfortable having twelve pairs of cold dangerous eyes staring at him, waiting for him to give them what is inevitably bad news. He doesn’t flinch. “One of my people has been in contact with Minos’s daughter, Ariadne. They were able to turn her to our side in exchange for several things that I will not disclose at this time, but suffice to say that those things do not endanger Olympus. The information she passed on, however, does.”
Apollo flinches. I’ve seen him before, of course, but consideringthat his little brother is back in my town house and was in my bed last night, I study him with new interest. He and Orpheus share the same coloring, with their dark eyes and black hair, but Apollo has more of his father in him. He’s built broader than Orpheus, and his jaw is nearly as square as Zeus’s.
When he speaks, his tone is careful. “Someone was able to turn Ariadne?”
“Who?” This comes from Demeter, mother to Eurydice, Persephone, Psyche, and our current Hera. She’s a middle-aged white woman who’s started to go soft in a way that has nothing to do with weakness. I’ve seen pictures of her from her youth, and she looks just like Eurydice and Persephone. In the decade since she won the title of Demeter by popular vote in Olympus, she has truly embraced the matronly earth mother persona.
She’s also one of the scariest people I’ve ever encountered.
Hades doesn’t flinch in the face of her suspicion. “It’s immaterial. The information I have, however, isn’t.”
“Tell us.” Zeus sits back. He’s a cold motherfucker, and right now is no exception. I can’t read anything on his face. The last Zeus was charismatic and boisterous, always the biggest personality in any room he walked into. His son either doesn’t have the skill to manipulate people like that, or doesn’t have the interest. I know which I would prefer to deal with, but the people of Olympus have been raking him over the coals for being so unlikable. He won’t play the game, and they resent him for it.
“Does the name Circe mean anything to you?”
I search the faces on the screen, looking for recognition. I don’t know who this person is, but I can connect the dots when they’relaid out in front of me. She is Minos’s benefactor. Which means she’s the enemy. I’m not comforted by the confused looks on everyone’s faces—except three. Zeus, Ares…
